Critical Christian Social People's Party (CSV) MPs accused the government of having been able to avoid the failure of Planetary Resources if only they had gone about it with more sensitivity and expertise instead of displaying "amateurish behaviour".
On Thursday, Luxembourg's parliament saw some heated debates erupting after the CSV demanded explanations by minister for the economy Étienne Schneider. CSV MP Laurent Mosar didn't want to accept minister Schneider's usual justification that space industry is a high-risk area and instead said that even as a "small accountant" he had observed that things didn't go the way they should have.
Mosar asked Schneider where all the space mining companies are that the minister promised would flock to invest in Luxembourg and create new jobs. The CSV MP said that while the minister pulled off a great PR stunt, nothing concrete has yet become of it.
Franz Fayot of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) however pointed to the numbers and suggested that many space resources companies are already active in Luxembourg. There are currently about 800 employees working for about 50 companies in that sector. Around 20 new companies settled in Luxembourg in the last three years alone, creating 70 additional jobs. 120 more companies expressed an interest in settling in Luxembourg in 2018.
LSAP party president Fayot explained that the sector is growing steadily, by about 6.7% each year between 2005 and 2017.
In his reply, Étienne Schneider defended himself against the CSV's accusations of amateurism saying that if Laurent Mosar accused the government of such a thing, he would also have to accuse investors such as Richard Branson, Microsoft and the founder of Amazon. These large multinational companies also invested in the Planetary Resources start-up that has since failed.
Minister Étienne Schneider also took the opportunity to announce that a mission under the Luxembourg flag will leave for the moon in 2020. The company Ispace will be involved, as well as a spectrometer to analyse the chemical composition of celestial bodies.
The right-wing ADR party didn't outright criticize the Planetary Resources fiasco, saying that Luxembourg at least managed to make itself known to companies in the sector. However, MP Roy Reding pointed out that questions would need to be asked concerning the competence of decision makers in the government.
The Left are still generally critical of the idea of space mining, saying that it is all about money. They argue that the projects are not in the public interest but rather in the interest of the wealthy and that it is used as an opportunity to expand capitalism. The Left MP Marc Baum lamented the fact that not more people are voicing their opposition to these kinds of projects.
Even though the CSV are critical of some aspects of the space industry, they are generally in favour of expanding the sector, arguing that it is a future-oriented industry that should not be neglected.
